WAR MEMORIALS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 80, 30 December 1918, Page 4

WAR MEMORIALS

SIE JAMES ALLEN'S VIEWS. In reply to a, question whether the Government would consider subsidising permanent memorials, as was done : for the Coronation, Sir Jaines Allen said at Dunedin that the question of permanent memorials waa of euch importance that it would require the most careful consideration. "Personally," -he said, "I do not think that any church or building is the sort of memorial we should consider. I think that each city might set aside a piece of ground, sown in grass, upon which could be erected an artistic memorinl'designed by the finest talent we can command, to pass on the spirit of the war to those who come, after us. Anyone who has travelled and seen the Champs Ely6ees, or Trafalgar Square, or the Statue of Liberty in New York, will realise how these statues commemorato the spirit and life of a nation, and hand on great traditions. I consider that this is the business of the citizens, and I do not see why each city should not have its memorial. It is supremely important that tho spirit of New Zealand and the traditions we have created should be worthily embodied in these memorials, and neither expense nor effort should be spared."

The Minister made it clear that V e thought the people themselves should, and would, desire to provide the memorials, Government resistance being, perhaps, in the direction of providing the artist.